Checking Out Your Dentist

Candice Ward, former Western Dental Patient

After hearing stories about complaints at the state's second largest dental HMO, Western Dental, people have asked what can a consumer do? Of course, knowledge is power. If you have questions about any dentist, check out their license and if they have been disciplined at the California Dental Board website. Here's the link.

It was striking to hear the same type of complaints at Western Dental now as we did in our first investigation fourteen years ago. You can see Thursday night's investigation here. We'll keep following up.

I am almost as blown away by Western Dentals claim of 99.9% satisfaction as I am with their A+ rating on the BBB. The day after I went to WD, I saw your expose. So far my son has not experienced the pain others have, but I am totally upset about their pricing practices. After they hook you by doing the $99 exam, they tell you the services needed are going to be 40% higher than the estimate. Not like you can walk away - already invested $99 and your son is sitting there in great pain. I have since found literally hundreds of complaints on line. How do they get an A+ rating with so many complaints?

Dan, nowhere in the report on Western Dental does it mention that this HMO is really a dental school open for public business much like a beauty or cosmetic school.

I found this out from the underwriter of my dental plan who was making sure I had not signed up for the payment plan through WD.

It appears that each office has a licensed dentist overseeing the 'interns' on the floor who do the work on the patients; they are not licensed and do not have the ability to provide any more than a mild numbing to the gums, so are not the ones to rely on for root canal or any other deep work in the mouth.

Western Dental kept me in braces for almost 7 years! They had me extract two teeth and spent three extra years trying to close my gaps because of it. Now my teeth are decayed where the bands where for so long. I'm not sure what to do.

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